Stop the School Closings ......... Again

Stop the school closings, info below -- this Wednesday (Feb.27th)
morning -- 125 S. Clark -- get there at 8am to sign up as a speaker, 10:30am for
the public comment section (it will fill up, if you come at that time you
will likely have to go to an overflow room).



STOP THE SCHOOL CLOSINGS
The following is a call to action from Teachers for Social Justice.
 CPS
has been moving quickly to close, consolidate, and "turn-around"
several
schools in predominately African American and Latino neighborhoods that
are experiencing gentrification or rapidly changing demographics.
 Please
see new report posted at http://www.uic.edu/educ/ceje/resources.html
about
these school closings.

Please go the CPS Board of Ed meeting on Wednesday to demand justice
for
the affected communities and to help fight for a just and equitable
public
education for all children...details are below.



*URGENT

Flood the CPS Board of Education Meeting Wed. Feb. 27
*TSJ is calling on all teachers and everyone else who can to take off
work and attend the next CPS Board meeting at 125 N. Clark Street. Be
there by 9AM. Be there at 6:30 AM if you want to speak.

CPS is phasing out or "turning around" 19 schools. Parents, teachers,
and students have been picketing, petitioning, and organizing to
challenge CPS plans even though the media have not covered their
actions. Some phase outs are supposedly for "low enrollment" but there
are actually special programs or other schools in the building. In
other
cases, the closing is linked to the CHA plan for transformation, and
closing the neighborhood school will drive public housing residents out
of the area (e.g., Abbott School). Some schools in African American and
Latino areas are being handed over to become selective enrolment
schools
(e.g., Andersen, Miles Davis). Some closings will force children to
cross dangerous streets and will result in under-enrollment of other
neighborhood schools, opening the way for more closings. The bottom
line
is that all this is being done without consultation or participation of
African American and Latino schools and communities and against their
demands and proposals.

CPS "hearings" are even more of a sham than previous years, with no CPS
officials present to be held accountable. One parent group was told
that
all the evidence they presented for keeping their school open was not
even going to be considered. The decision was already made before the
hearing. These decisions are being made by Mayor Daley's appointees as
part of a larger political and economic agenda for the city that does
not include the welfare of working class people of color.

This round of closings undermines any pretense of democratic
participation in school decision making, particularly by African
American and Latino communities. TSJ stands with the teachers,
families,
students, and communities to demand equitable, quality education in all
neighborhoods, for all children and for the necessity for families and
communities to participate in decisions about their schools.

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Teachers for Social Justice (Chicago)

http://teachersforjustice.org/
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